Electronic apparatus that allows cooling fan to be driven with certainty even at the time of software malfunction/lock-up or at the time of controller failure

ABSTRACT

A voltage for driving a cooling fan is usually output from a fan voltage control circuit. Whether to cause the fan voltage control circuit to output the drive voltage or not is controlled by a system management utility (software) and a bridge controller (hardware) on the basis of temperature data from a temperature sensor. To provide for the occurrence of a failure in the system management utility or the bridge controller, a temperature comparator monitors the temperature data from the temperature sensor and instructs a fan voltage control circuit to output a drive voltage for the cooling fan in the case where the temperature rises above a given value.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. application Ser.No. 10/944,901, filed Sep. 21, 2004, and for which priority is claimedunder 35 U.S.C. §120. This application is based upon and claims thebenefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 from the prior Japanese PatentApplication No. 2003-334179, filed Sep. 25, 2003, the entire contents ofboth applications are incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a technique that controls the drivingof a cooling fan used in an electronic apparatus such as a personalcomputer.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, various types of personal computers, such as notebookcomputers and desktop computers, have come into wide use in offices andhomes. In general, with these types of personal computers, a cooling fanis installed in the neighborhood of a central processing unit (CPU) inorder to discharge air, the temperature of which has been elevated dueto heat generated by the CPU, to the outside of the casing. Control ofthe cooling fan is carried out on the basis of temperature data outputfrom a temperature sensor (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,843).

This allows appropriate cooling-fan control that allows for low-noisedriving and low power consumption to be implemented (such as rotates thecooling fan only when necessary).

Up to now, the driving of the cooling fan has been controlled by asingle controller. The controller receives commands associated withdrive control of the cooling fan from software whenever necessary ordrives the cooling fan as initialized by software.

With such a system, however, the occurrence of a malfunction or lock-upin the software or a failure in the controller will result in failure toperform the appropriate control of the cooling fan. In this case, aslong as the cooling fan continues to rotate there is no problem, but ifthe cooling fan does not rotate at all, the function of protecting theCPU may not be performed.

With a large business-oriented server computer, it is possible toprovide a dual cooling fan system; however, since this system inevitablycauses the cost and size to be increased, it is not practical to providethe dual cooling fan system in a personal computer.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an electronicapparatus comprises a fan drive circuit which drive controls a coolingfan, first and second fan voltage control circuits each of which outputsa drive voltage required for the fan drive circuit to drive the coolingfan, a temperature sensor, a system controller which drive controls thefirst fan voltage control circuit on the basis of temperature datareceived from the temperature sensor, and a temperature comparator whichacquires the temperature data transferred toward the system controllerand, when the temperature is above a given value, drive controls thesecond fan voltage control circuit to output the drive voltage withoutintervention of the system controller.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of the specification, illustrate presently preferred embodiments ofthe invention, and together with the general description given above andthe detailed description of the embodiments given below, serve toexplain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the portion associated with cooling fancontrol of an electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for drive control of the cooling fan by the systemmanagement utility in the electronic apparatus of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for drive control of the cooling fan by thetemperature comparator in the electronic apparatus of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An embodiments of the present will be described hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows, in block diagram form, the portion associated with coolingfan control of an electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

This electronic apparatus, which is, for example, a notebook-typepersonal computer, is subject to overall control by a CPU 11. In theelectronic apparatus, a system management (SM) bus 1 and a peripheralcomponent interconnect (PCI) bus 2 for data transmission and receptionare installed. A bridge controller 12 has a bridge function ofconnecting the SM bus 1 and the PCI bus 2 with the high-speed local busof the CPU 11.

A system memory 13 and a BIOS-ROM 14 are connected to the bridgecontroller 12, which also has the function of controlling access tothese components.

The system memory 13, which is a storage medium that serves as mainstorage of the electronic apparatus, temporarily stores various programsexecuted by the CPU 11 and various pieces of data employed by theseprograms. One of the programs stored in the system memory 13 is a systemmanagement utility 100 which will be described later. The BIOS-ROM 14,which is a storage medium that stores the basic input/output system(BIOS), comprises a program-rewritable flash memory.

Various peripheral devices, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), an opticaldisk drive (ODD), etc., are connected to the PCI bus 2 throughcontrollers 15, 16, etc. The SM bus 1 is used to inquire of theperipheral devices connected to the PCI bus 2 as to whether they arefunctioning correctly by way of example.

The temperature sensor 17 creates temperature data from status dataoutput from the CPU 11 and then outputs it onto the SM bus 1 as beingaddressed to the bridge controller 12. The temperature data output ontothe SM bus is received by the bridge controller 12 and stored into itsbuilt-in register. The system management utility 100 stored in thesystem memory 13 reads the temperature data from the bridge controller12 at regular intervals and instructs the bridge controller 12 to rotatea cooling fan 21 when the temperature rises above a given temperature.This instruction process is performed by writing control data into thebuilt-in register. Suppose here that the threshold temperature at whichthe system management utility 100 causes the cooling fan 21 to commencerotating is set at 63° C.

Upon being instructed, the bridge controller 12 commands a fan voltagecontrol circuit (1) 18 to output a drive voltage required for a fandrive circuit 20 to rotate the cooling fan 21. This instruction processis performed by the bridge controller inverting the potential on thecontrol signal line connected between the fan voltage control circuit(1) 18 and it from a low level to a high level or vice versa.

Upon being instructed, the fan voltage control circuit (1) 18 commencesto output a fan drive voltage. Here, this voltage is supposed to be 8V.The 8V drive voltage output from the fan voltage control circuit (1) 18is applied through an OR circuit 19 to the fan drive circuit 20, so thatthe cooling fan 21 starts to rotate. The reason why the OR circuit 19 isinterposed between the fan voltage control circuit (1) 18 and the fandrive circuit 20 will be described later.

If, after the cooling fan 21 has started to rotate, the temperaturevalue read from the bridge controller 12 falls below the given valueminus a margin of temperature, i.e., (63-α)° C., then the systemmanagement utility 100 instructs the bridge controller 12 to stop thecooling fan 21. The bridge controller 12 then instructs the fan voltagecontrol circuit (1) 18 to stop outputting the drive voltage unlike whencausing the cooling fan 21 to start to rotate. Thereby, the driving ofthe cooling fan 21 by the fan drive circuit 20 using the 8V drivevoltage from the fan voltage control circuit (1) 18 is terminated.

Thus, with this electronic apparatus, basically the system managementutility 100 which is software and the bridge controller 12 which ishardware cooperate with each other to implement the appropriate drivecontrol of the cooling fan 21 based on the output of the temperaturesensor 17.

Suppose here that a malfunction or lock-up has occurred in the systemmanagement utility 100 or a failure has occurred in the bridgecontroller 12, and as the result, a situation has been brought about inwhich no command is given to the fan voltage control circuit (1) tooutput a drive voltage of 8 volts although the temperature detected bythe temperature sensor 17 has risen above 63° C.

To allow for such a situation, the electronic apparatus is equipped witha temperature comparator 22, a fan voltage control circuit (2) 23, and alight emitting diode (LED) 24 in addition to the OR circuit 19. Theoperating principles of these components will be described below indetail.

The temperature comparator 22 reads in temperature data from thetemperature sensor 17 and, when the read value is above the given value,instructs the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 to output a voltagerequired for the fan drive circuit 20 to rotate the cooling fan 21. Asin the case where the bridge controller 12 instructs the fan voltagecontrol circuit (1) 18 as described above, this instruction process isperformed by inverting the potential on the control signal lineconnected to the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 from a low level toa high level or vice versa. In this case, however, control of the fanvoltage control circuit (2) 23 is performed by the temperature sensor 22as opposed to the bridge controller 12, i.e., without intervention ofthe bridge controller.

The threshold temperature at which the temperature comparator 22instructs the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 to output the voltageis set higher than the threshold value at which the system managementutility 100 causes the cooling fan 21 to commence rotating. Morespecifically, the threshold temperature is set to a temperature whichwill not be usually reached when the system management utility 100 andthe bridge controller 12 cooperate with each other to control thecooling fan 21 appropriately and at which the CPU protective functionwill not commence to work. This temperature is set here at 69° C. Thatis, when the system composed of the system management utility 100, thebridge controller 12 and the fan voltage control circuit (1) 18 isfunctioning normally, the temperature detected by the temperature sensor17 will not reach 69° C. In other words, in the case where thetemperature detected by the temperature sensor 17 has reached 69° C., itis considered that a malfunction or lock-up has occurred in the systemmanagement utility 100 or a failure has occurred in the bridgecontroller 12. In this case, in order to increase the cooling effect ofthe cooling fan 21, the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 outputs avoltage of, say, 12V, which is higher than the output voltage, 8V, ofthe fan voltage control circuit (1) 18.

The 12V output voltage of the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 isapplied through the OR circuit 19 to the fan drive circuit 20, which inturn causes the cooling fan 21 to rotate.

If, after the cooling fan 21 has started to rotate, the temperaturevalue output from the temperature sensor 17 falls below the given valueminus a margin of temperature (69-β)° C., then the temperaturecomparator 22 instructs the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 to stopoutputting the drive voltage. Thereby, the driving of the cooling fan 21by the fan drive circuit 20 using the 12V drive voltage from the fanvoltage control circuit (2) 23 is terminated.

When the electronic apparatus is placed in a very special environment,it cannot exclude the possibility that, although the system composed ofthe system management utility 100, the bridge controller 12 and the fanvoltage control circuit (1) 18 is functioning normally, the temperaturedetected by the temperature sensor 17 reaches 69° C. and consequentlythe fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 also commences to output thedrive voltage. In this electronic apparatus, therefore, the OR circuit19 is interposed between the fan drive circuit 20 and each of the fanvoltage control circuits 18 and 23. When either the fan voltage controlcircuit (1) 18 or the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 outputs a drivevoltage, the OR circuit 19 applies it to the fan drive circuit 20. Onthe other hand, when each of the fan voltage control circuit (1) 18 andthe fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 outputs a drive voltage, the ORcircuit 19 applies the 12V drive voltage from the fan voltage controlcircuit (2) 23 to the fan drive circuit 20 in view of the situation inwhich the temperature has reached 69° C.

The fan voltage control circuit (2) 23, upon the commencement ofoutputting the drive voltage, causes the LED 24 to light in order tonotify the user that a malfunction or lock-up may have occurred in thesystem management utility 100 or a failure may have occurred in thebridge controller 12. Even after the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23has ceased to output the drive voltage, it continues to light the LED 24in order to notify the user the fact that an abnormal situation hasoccurred.

Thus, this electronic apparatus allows the cooling fan 21 to be drivenwith certainty even in the case where a malfunction or lock-up hasoccurred in the system management utility 100 or a failure has occurredin the bridge controller 12 by simply adding the OR circuit 19, thetemperature comparator 22, the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23, andthe LED 24.

It is advisable to be able to arbitrarily set the threshold temperature(63° C.) held in the system management utility 100 and the thresholdtemperature (69° C.) held in the temperature comparator 22 according toinstallation environments. To this end, the system management utility100 is provided with a user interface to allow the user to set thethreshold temperature and the temperature comparator 22 is provided withan interface to accept the setting over the SM bus 1. The setting of thethreshold value using the interface of the temperature comparator 22 iscarried out by means of, for example, the BIOS stored in the BIOS-ROM14.

Reference is now made to flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3 to describe theflow of drive control of the cooling fan 21 in the electronic apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of drive control of thecooling fan 21 by the system management utility 100.

The system management utility 100 reads temperature data detected by thetemperature sensor 17 from the bridge controller 12 (step A1) and thenmakes a decision of whether or not the temperature is above 63° C. (stepA2). If the temperature is above 63° C. (YES in step A2), then thesystem management utility 100 instructs the bridge controller 12 torotate the cooling fan 21 (step A3).

After instructing the bridge controller to rotate the cooling fan 21,the system management utility 100 makes a decision of whether or not thetemperature detected by the temperature sensor 17 and read from thebridge controller 12 has fallen below (63-α)° C. (step A4). If thetemperature has fallen below (63-α)° C. (YES in step A4), then thesystem management utility 100 instructs the bridge controller 12 to stopthe cooling fan 21 (step A5).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of drive control of thecooling fan 21 by the temperature comparator 22.

The temperature comparator 22 reads in temperature data from thetemperature sensor 17 (step B1) and then makes a decision of whether ornot the temperature is above 69° C. (step B2). If the temperature isabove 69° C. (YES in step B2), then the temperature comparator 22instructs the fan voltage control circuit (2) 23 to output a drivevoltage (step B3) and turns the LED 24 on (step B4).

After instructing the fan voltage control circuit to output a drivevoltage, the temperature comparator 22 makes a decision of whether ornot the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 17 has fallenbelow (69-β)° C. (step B5). If the temperature has fallen below (69-β)°C. (YES in step B5), then the temperature comparator 22 instructs thefan voltage control circuit (2) 23 to stop outputting the drive voltage(step B6).

As can be seen from the foregoing, the inventive electronic apparatusallows the cooling fan to be driven with certainty even at the time ofsoftware malfunction/lock-up or at the time of controller failure.

The embodiment has been described in terms of a specific example inwhich the system management utility 100 reads temperature data detectedby the temperature sensor 17 from the bridge controller 12 at regularintervals and instructs the bridge controller 12 to rotate the coolingfan 21 if the read temperature has risen above 63° C. However, this isnot restrictive. The embodiment may be modified such that the systemmanagement utility 100 sets 63° C. as a threshold temperature in thebridge controller 12 in initial procedure and, after that, the bridgecontroller that receives temperature data from the temperature sensor 17drive controls the cooling fan 21 at its own discretion. Even in such acase, the control of the cooling fan 21 by the temperature controller 22is useful.

Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to thoseskilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects isnot limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shownand described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be madewithout departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventiveconcept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

1. A cooling fan drive controlling method of an electronic apparatusincluding a cooling fan, a fan drive circuit which drive-controls thecooling fan and first and second fan voltage control circuits each ofwhich outputs a drive voltage required for the fan drive circuit todrive the cooling fan, the method comprising: sensing a temperature;drive-controlling the first fan voltage control circuit to output thedrive voltage when the sensed temperature exceeds a first value; anddrive-controlling the second voltage control circuit to output the drivevoltage when the sensed temperature exceeds a second value which ishigher than the first value.
 2. The cooling fan drive controlling methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising indicating the occurrence of anabnormal condition when the second voltage control circuit outputs thedrive voltage.
 3. The cooling fan drive controlling method according toclaim 1, wherein the second voltage control circuit outputs the drivevoltage which is higher than the drive voltage output from the firstvoltage control circuit.
 4. The cooling fan drive controlling methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising setting the first value and thesecond value.
 5. The cooling fan drive controlling method according toclaim 1, further comprising applying the drive voltage from the first orsecond fan voltage control circuit to the fan drive circuit, when thedrive voltage is output from at least one of the first and second fanvoltage control circuits.
 6. The cooling fan drive controlling methodaccording to claim 5, wherein the applying the drive voltage includesapplying the drive voltage from the second fan voltage control circuitto the fan drive circuit, when both of the first and second fan voltagecontrol circuits output the drive voltage.